Events

Theologian and American Indian Scholar to Give Annual Mahle Lecture

The annual Mahle Lecture in Progressive
Christian Thought will feature Dr. George “Tink”
Tinker, a theologian and American Indian scholar. His lecture “World Balance
vs. Personal Salvation: An American Indian Postcolonial Perspective” will explore
the worldview of American Indian peoples’ respect for the whole of creation and
for all relations. Tinker also will examine how
the survival of American Indian cultures and cultural values may make the
difference for the survival and sustainability for the earth as people know it.

The lecture takes place on Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Sundin
Music Hall, located at 1531 Hewitt Avenue on Hamline’s Saint Paul campus. The
event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Drew Parking
Lot, one block east of Sundin Hall along Hewitt Avenue.

“Dr. Tinker’s visit coincides
with the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Dakota War,” Nancy
Victorin-Vangerud, Hamline University chaplain and director of the Wesley
Center for Spirituality, Service, and Social Justice, said. “We look forward to
having him help us examine how people of immigrant religious traditions may
live justly with first nations' peoples.”

Dr. George Tinker, a member of the Osage Nation (Wazhazhe), is the Clifford
Baldridge Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at
Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. His numerous works include
American Indian Liberation: A Theology
of Sovereignty; Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian
Liberation; and Missionary Conquest: The
Gospel and Native American Genocide.

Tinker also has volunteered as
the director and traditional spiritual leader of Four Winds American Indian
Council, which provides Denver’s urban Indian population with spiritual and
social space to gather. Tinker has also
volunteered with the National Council of Churches and the World Council of
Churches. For 20 years, he has worked with the American Indian Movement of
Colorado on the Leadership Council, and now on the Elders’ Council.

The Mahle lecture is made possible through the
Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service and Social Justice's Mahle Endowed Fund
for Progressive Christian Thought. For more information, contact the Wesley Center at 651-523-2878.